I said earlier today that to spice things up I would start a rumor that Joe Crede was in town to take a physical. I think he really is.

Andy, you are smart not to make the announcement of Crede's signing until after fanflam.

You need at least a 5 minute head start.

Pete,

I get the feeling from Macphail that Bedard appears to be healthy enough to take a chance on so I wonder why there is still no concrete reports on just when he'd be ready to pitch. It also sounds like they are seriously interested in Tejada but it could have been because Roch was more leaning him to answer questions about Tejada than Crede. Tejada would definitely be my preference. Macphail is very good at answering the questions that you ask without really giving you the answer he knows your looking for. With all the talk about Tejada and Bedard I bet the signings are Crede and Hendrickson. That doesnt excite me.......

Roch Kubatko and Jim Hunter!?

Sounds like a press conference held by the Iraqi Information Minister.

Quote, "We are winning!"

pete, have there been any more talks with delgado? i'd much rather have him than tejada or crede. he'll hit for a lot more power than either of them, but i haven't heard much about him lately.

oh crap... bring on a left hander... Mark Hendrickson is a left hander!!!!! AHHH! CRAP!

I bet Adrian Gonzales jumps out from behind the curtain... and then he's mistake for Enrico Palazzo.

It turns out the guy in the toupee was Bruce Willis the whole time!

Are we there yet? Could you even make this stuff up! We should have a really nice AAA team on the field this year! Do you realize that Tim Wakefield the Red Sox number 6 starter would be our Numero Uno!

There always next year!

Dave... just read on ESPN, stark wrote that a scout said Delgado can't play first anymore.

As for the RPs, there is still Calero, MacDougal, Arredando, and Gregg are still left and worth a look...

My darkhorse... LHRP Joe Biemel

I dont thing any of his moves this offseason will be "surprising"!
If we trade for Adrian Gonzales, that would be a (good) surprise!

i believe andy macphail would make a good politician.it behoves me to no end why the orioles have not shown any interest in a pitcher like jon garland. ( i am aware that he is not left handed). i think jon garland has said he wanted to stay out west,but it is getting late and he might have to change his plans. what is andy macphails problem that he won't sign a player that is really worth signing

Shamrock- Enrico Palazzo quote is hilarious!

if you would of said to me at this time last year that we would potentially be bringing back bedard and tejeda i would ask you what you were smoking and if i could have some. but both moves make sense to me if the price and years are right.

SHAMROCK, I agree with you on Joe Biemel as a dark horse candidate. I really think this guy could be very effective in the 7th inning. I am surprised no one has picked him up?

I think there is a comfort level in Baltimore for Bedard. The guy wouldn't last a second with the Boston and NY media, but here, he's quiet, keeps to himself and it worked out before because no one will be his face 24/7. I don't think Bedard will ever be a guy who can go 7 innings every 5th game, but when he is on own his game, he can dominate even if it's just for 6 innings.

Andy doesn't usually put himself in a corner so I am a tad shocked how he keeps saying he wants a guy to man third because if that's the case, Miggy is the guy. If they sign Crede, Wiggy will start over 140 games at third so why not play Atkins at third and get Blalock to play 1B? Hank has been hurt with a variety of bizarre injuries, but he's healthy now and the guy will give you 25+ HRs so I would rather go with the guy who can give the lineup more pop than to just get someone because they can play third when Atkins has been doing that his whole career.

BTW, did anyone enter to win season tickets for a year by pinning the tail on the jacka$$, I mean Jim Hunter?

I have it on good insider information that the Orioles have a new corner infielder...just who we will find out?

My sources have told me that the corner infield to be announced today is A-Rod.

FanFarse,

A completely good convention center, wasted on losers!

AM was actually very smart not to announce Crede before FanFarce. I mean it could have gotten ugly. Even the warehousers may have revolted.

Be sure to kiss AM's ring when you see him Pete. Don't say it's coming from you, but maybe remind him that people are a little upset that......

- it'll be another losing season
- that we'll have the worst corners in the organizations history.
- that the team won 64 games last year...... that's 98 losses by the way.
- that the team has no clean up hitter.
- that the team has no proven, experienced hitters in the lineup that can ease the pressure of the developing players.
- that the o's are 26 of 30 in payroll..... that's 26 of 30 by the way...
- that 3 rookies (basically) are in the starting rotation. Rookies who will be shut down in the 2nd half.
- that people are finding many, many press clippings from Chicago that show his Plan never worked the first 9 years.
- that he admitted he failed in chicago.
- that fans are tired of always hearing that....

...'IT's NOT ABOUT THIS YEAR' always before this year ever starts.

And you may want to remind him that Baltimore was never intended to be a AAA team. That the fans pay major league prices so they can watch a major league team.

Lastly..... Remind AM that his job is to WIN baseball games, NOT prepare to be the next Commissioner of baseball.

Thanks Pete!

why don't you do it, remind AM that is? you'll be there.you know, get it out of your system kind of thing.
nope, just keep on the same stupid rant on here.

huh?

Headline form tomorrow's The Baltimore Sun:

MAN ARRESTED AT ORIOLES FANFEST

A man was arrested yesterday on public nuisance charges while at Orioles Fanfest. The man, Wayne (last name unknown), was speaking at a question and answer session with Andy MacPhail, Orioles President of Baseball Operations, when he began babbling uncontrollably about "the lack of a plan", "64 wins (98 losses for those who can't subtract, by the way) " and "you failed in Chicago". When he refused to give up the microphone, he was arrested. As he was led away, he was heard to shout, "Fire Trembley!. The truth shall set you free!"

He was released hours later when bail was posted by a woman known only as Barb.

Once upon a time,
In the land of Pleasant Living,
Played a glorious baseball team.

The O's were so fine,
The wins they were a giving,
Now they are a pile of steam.

You can sum up why McPhail won't sign a player worth signing in two words, "Peter Angelos" , and that says it all, no further expalnation needed!!!

Exactly who were we supposed to sign this offseason that would have made a huge difference to this team. Maybe Lackey but why go big bucks for 4 years for an injury pron pitcher. This team has so much more talent than it did 3 years ago. They also have the talent in the minors to make a hard run at AGon at the trade deadline or more likely next offseason.

Yep, its always difficult to find players good enough to make an improvement on a 98 loss team

Last year SI ranked Angelos as the worst owner in baseball. His off-season snooze job makes clear that he is determined to defend his reputation.

Peter,
Has the Sun ever done (or thought about doing) a review of the Orioles' "state of the franchise" from a financial perspective? I think there must be an interesting story there. Here's a few items I've found interesting (most are publicly known to some extent, but not the specifics:

1) Angelos' deal with MLB: Most people know about Angelos' deal with the league related to the Nationals setting up in DC, but the details are intriguing. Angelos is guaranteed a gross of at least $130 million and a guaranteed franchise selling price of $360 (increased through annual escalators. Given that recent valuations of the team put a projected current sales price between $360-400 mil, and gross revenue has fluctuated between $130-170 over the last 5-7 years, how does the MLB guarantee affect Angelos' incentives to improve the team? On the one hand, it would require a significant outlay of cash to improve the Orioles' on-field performance, which while potentially increasing team revenue would likely still reduce his profit margins. On the other hand, if he decides against investing in success and is resigned to "current course and speed", why not just go all the way and squeeze the team for as much cash as possible, since he's already at or near the league-guaranteed revenue and franchise value amounts? Certainly, some people will go to Camden Yards no matter what (at least we'll still do good business in Red Sox and Yankees fans), and this way Angelos could extract far more profit from the team while not running any risk from a revenue or business value perspective. Could that be why the Orioles remain near the bottom of the league in team payroll and continually reneg on promises to invest?
2) Revenue, payroll and profit trends: Last year's "Business of Baseball", published by Forbes, paints an interesting view of the Orioles finances. For instance, I would not have guessed that Orioles revenue has increased steadily over the past five years, from $129-170m, while Forbes' assessment of franchise value has also increased in proportion, from $296-400m (a 50%+ increase in his investment value, at the same time that the business/product has reached historic worsts!). Perhaps most interesting for fans: average operating profit over the past 5 years has been $21.4 million a year, a pretty dramatic increase from a $2.8 million a year average the previous 5 years!

Well with revenue on the rise and player salaries increasing across the league surely the team's payroll has been increasing in line, right? Wrong! Looking at opening day roster salaries for the past ten years, the Orioles roster salary held exactly even from 2000-2007 (averaging $72.95 million the first four years and $72.95 million the second four years). And what has it averaged under the MacPhail regime? Opening day roster salaries were $67.2 and $67.1 million in 2008 and 2009, and the current roster stands at $61.8m (including Millwood's full $13m salary, which we received cash from Texas for!).

I'm sure MacPhail would argue that given his rebuilding plan the team cut major league expense to focus on longer-term development, but the fact remains that the team is spending $10m a year less (15%!) on player salaries than it averaged before MacPhail arrived, at the same time that revenues have been steadily increasing! (as well as player salaries around the league)

I just think it would be valuable for someone to put the Orioles on the spot to answer for all of this, particularly when they try to get away justifying moves like ticket increases with shoddy math. "Your average price is $4 below league average? WELL YOUR PAYROLL IS AT THE BOTTOM SO DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE DOING US ANY FAVORS!!"

ANdy,

Great post.

Orioles payroll is 30% BELOW league average

Forget about spending with the Yanks and the sox, we dont even spend with teams right at league average

Despicable.

Yet all of the apologists try to justify it. As Ive interacted with them more, Ive noticed that they are either dishonest or completely uninformed

thank you, Andrew.

What do you say, Peter? Take them to task. Someone, please!

Jason - I don't care about the league average, which factors in the Yankees. How do the O's compare to the median (mid-point) of the major league teams?

ColumbiaBill:

How about this (sources: Forbes 2009):
1) Revenue: last year the Orioles ranked 20th in revenue. However, instead of raw ranking I think it's most helpful to look at three revenue clusters that jump out of the data. 7 "big market teams" all boasted revenue of $212m or more, a group the Orioles would be unlikely to move into regardless of performance. 6 "small market teams" come in at $160m or below. Each of these groups are clustered, with large breaks separating them and "the middle 17", who have revenue between $171-196m. The Orioles are toward the bottom of this group, though with strong on-field performance I'm sure could easily move to the top.
2) Payroll: To more directly address your question I would offer the following observation: last year the Orioles were a top-5 franchise in terms of profit (Forbes), but bottom-5 in terms of team salary (ESPN). If you took $10-12 million of profit and put it into signing some top talent for the roster, the team would be roughly near the median for both operating profit (with Angelos pulling in a respectable $15M in profit) AND player salary.

This team is being squeezed for cash at the expense of performance. But as I pointed out above, revenues/profits/franchise value keep going up (and Angelos is protected from any downside risk through his sweetheart deal with MLB anyway), so where is the incentive for the team to do anything different?

Occasionally hand out a long-term deal to a fan favorite who can be had for a reasonable sum (Roberts and Markakis), run everything else on the cheap, and watch the money roll in. When people complain cry poverty and point to the Yankees and Red Sox, and hope they don't point out that you're MAKING MORE profit AND SPENDING LESS in player salary than nearly every other team.

ColumbiaBill

I suggest u look at the Forbes column, Ive posted the link ad nauseum

how's this for a simple comparison

the Os payroll is 30 million LESS than 07

Os top 5 in PROFITS

Os bottom 5 in PAYROLL/STANDINGS

No matter how poorly the team does, Angelos is guaranteed a 200 million dollar profit when he sells the team.

Simply put, theres no incentive to win becuase its more profitable to keep expenses down resulting in higher profits. The Os can have 12 more losing seasons and Angelos can sell the team and still making obscene profits.

The kicker is MLB guarantees operating revenue too. BASICALLY ANGELOS CANNOT LOSE BY LOSING

jason c in so fla

Jason and Columbia Bill. I think that both of you (and Forbes) are only focusing on the big league club and 40 man roster. The Orioles have been one of the top spenders (on average) in the last three major league drafts. They are in the process of reconstituting thier international scouting and they have purposely shed long term (mostly non-performing) contracts and avoided mortgaging thier future on questionable free agents. I hope the team remains profitable and continues to build from within. Also, welcome back Miggy!+

hey dick!

Do you have to be so obvious that you work for the Orioles?

lol... seriously!

To the Forbes crowd: So what? They added 26 mil to the payroll and they aren't done yet. You also fail to factor the future of the team (Jones, Reimold, Wieters, Tillman, Matusz, Bergesen, JJ) are all playing for under a million bucks a year.

1. Angelos does not benefit from future profits of selling the team in the present. Thus, he cannot use that future sales profits to help the team now. As far as I know, there is so such thing as a Baseball Franchise Equity Loan.

2. These amounts are estimations by the Forbes crew. Without seeing the actual income statement and balance sheet, you have no idea as to what goes into those numbers. They are a private LP. However, I am happy to see that my hometown team, by Forbes estimates, manages its money well and is positioned better than most teams for the future.

3. Back to Angelos, he's 80 and worth nearly a billion dollars. What does he care about money anymore? He isn't even around the ballpark that much anymore. That and he will probably be dead before he sells the team and ownership reverts to family or a trust or something.

4. He would have been better putting his money in the stock market. To double his money in 16 years in the market, he would have only needed a 4.6% return, could have got that in a bond portfolio.

5. What does a $27mil profit get you anyway? Unless that amount is precisely forecasted, you can't spend it before it comes in, thus, they did better than they thought. Not to mention, they are rebuilding and require a lower capital expenditure out lay to operate.

6. The salary dropped this year because of dead weight players falling off the roster. Who do all of you smart guys suggest they signed to replace them to get to a 100 mil roster and playoff contention (keep in mind, this isn't Madden and there is a human element of wanting to come here too)? Because when you arbitrarily spend that much money and miss the playoffs, you gots some 'splainin' to do!

SHAMROCK

why are you a bigger fan of the o's profiting than the Os winning ?

Right on Shamrock. When you factor in the pay increases for increased performance by Jones, Weiters and the fleet of pitching prospects, our payroll should increase dramaticly over the next 3 years.

Sure looks like someone jumped out from behind the curtain as MacPhail denied would happen. His name is Tejada. Just proves MacPhail is like all baseball execs; you can't believe any of them.

Sorry "ben"

*how many names does bf/shamrock/ben go by ? LOL

MOney comes off the books every yr too

Os top 5 in PROFITS, no matter how much u try to spin it the more money that go in petey's pockets, the less that go into the team and the O's were in the top 3 in PROFITS from 2002-07...thats a lot of moola in the kitty

U asked how mcuh can 25 mil really buy ? well setting aside the fact that what they're claiming to make is always significantly less than they really make. The O's have accountants more creative than spielberg

But for a second we'll go with 25 million and multipy it by 8 = 200 million. Hmm, who could u get for 200 million over 8 ys. How about TEX. answer me apologists, would u rather have Tex or more money in peteys pockets I dont want to hear the "he wouldnt come here" crap. Its a simple question--DO U WANT TEX OR HIGHER PROFITS FOR PETEY ? a simple either/or question

Os bottom 5 in STANDINGS/PAYROLL

I know the apologists are all excited over another player past his prime joining the O's and Ill admit that

Tejada > Crede

unfortunately

ARod > Tejada

Longoria > Tejada

Beltre > Tejada (esp if u count def) as is

NYY > BAL

BOS >BAL

TB > BAL

Heck even TOR > BAL

Last place here we come!! but lets keep up the happy talk anyway becuase andy did better than andy did last yr (even though it NOT NEARLY GOOD ENOUGH for the AL EAST) .

The one thing about the apologists is that they're not real good at thinking

How long before we hear dandy andy making these same remarks at the outhouse b4 moving on to the comm's office
""I was brought to Chicago to accomplish one goal and that was to win the World Series," MacPhail said. "Despite plenty of time and resources, I was unable to get the job done......MacPhail: “I’ve been here 12 years, 12 seasons, and we’ve had only two postseasons. That’s not what I came here to do. Obviously, I haven’t been as effective as I wanted to be.”

only had 5 winning seasons out of 12. He did manage to lose over 90 games for nearly half of his time in CHI though Yep, hes the answer all right

Very long diatribe Jason.

sum it up in 1 line:

All the profits in the world would not have brought Tex here.

Oh, and I only use 1 name and variation. Again, why are you so mad? You aren't going to lose a job over any of this? Why get so worked up?

SCAMROCK,

So Im assuming that the 4/30 contract to Hundley is the biggest FA contract AM has ever given

Yet u probably still think AM will spend big next yr, LOL

You're not very bright, nor are you honest. I guess thats what it takes to be an apolog9st. DUMB & DISHONEST--makes sense

O's continue to put profits ahead of progress on the field, yet SCAMROCK aka BF thinks this is OK

Neither can understand y ppl r so disgusted with whats happened to our beloved O's. Nobody can really be that clueless. They have to be 1 in the same

The fact that both lie and neither can ever provide any evidence to back up any of their delusional premises explains y they feel the need to haplessly pretend that there are more who would actually attempt to defend the indefensible. Its dumb no matter how many aliases u post under

I keep telling u, u are not going to get promoted from your janitor job at the outhouse to the gm, no matter how effusive your praise of macphail

Jason- this may help:

http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/slideshow-bipolar-disorder-overview

Shamrock:
point by point:
1) Angelos certainly does benefit from the 13.5% profit margin the team is making now ($25m+ in his pocket each year) and the franchise is indeed an asset, which he could borrow against.
2) Yes they are estimates, but Forbes' franchise valuations (across all major leagues) are widely accepted and used as benchmarks by any number of credible outlets. This isn't some random guy with a webpage- and I don't see the Orioles (or any other team) rushing to correct what's published.
3) You don't get to be worth a billion dollars by NOT caring about money. You get there by fighting for every penny you can get- see: Angelos lawsuit with the state of Maryland arguing that he should have gotten billions in fees from handling the state's tobacco litigation. And I doubt the man has decided to suddenly change his personality just because he's 80. If anything I could argue that's why he's tried to secure the Orioles' financial position so tightly (with the MLB guarantee, squeezing the margins, etc).
4) You forget about annual profit Angelos takes from the team. Yes the value of the franchise has increased at a CAGR of about 5%, but in recent years (not just one year) he's been averaging a 13.5% profit every year. Show me the bond portfolio that carries a 13.5% coupon rate AND a par value at maturity double what you paid for it!
5) OF COURSE you can forecast profit. You can project your costs with nearly 100% accuracy on opening day, and any freshman statistician can forecast a likely range for revenue. The Orioles' revenue has been highly consistent and hasn't declined over the entire period I looked at, showing modest increases year-over-year since 2003. There aren't many businesses that you could predict better, in fact.
6) $20 million a year in extra salary isn't pocket change, and that kind of money could substantially change both the future outlook as well as the pace of progress for this team. A REAL run at Teixeira last year might have been a good start (instead of throwing out one lowball offer and calling it quits)- he was a low-risk bet with years of production ahead of him, filling a position of need. He may have decided to go to the Yankees anyway, but how would we know without trying? If not Tex, I'm sure there are plenty of other good, young players we could get with $20 million, rather than relying solely on rushing our best prospects and recycling unwanted players from elsewhere (see: Adam Eaton).